Meal Prepping for the Week

For me, meal prepping for the week is about two main things: making Loo’s food prep and making large amounts of certain foods 1-3 times, depending on the week.

Along with my food prep, I buy 2-3 proteins (chicken thighs or a whole chicken, lamb or beef and fresh fish). I cook each protein for a different dinner (leftovers go towards other meals). I buy at least a pound of meat, 2 lbs of chicken (this includes bones) and 1 lb of fish. Since I am cooking for me and my husband, when I make 1 lb of fish, for example, I still have two servings left (because a serving size of meat, chicken or fish is 4 oz). I will refrigerate those leftover portions and serve them for a different meal during the week.

Sauce: when I make sauce, I often make a large amount (6 cups). I put 2 cups in my fridge to use throughout the next week and a half in various ways. The remaining 4 cups of sauce, I freeze. I would freeze a mason jar with 3 cups of sauce and put the remaining 1 cup of sauce into silicone molds. I freeze the molds and when hard, turn them out into a mason jar to store in the freezer.

Protein: I make large amounts (2-3 lbs) of one kind of protein every 1-2 weeks (usually a chuck roast, beef rib roast, roasted chicken or roasted lamb- sometimes pork shoulder). When I make these, I refrigerate 4 portions of meat to serve to my husband and I over the week. The remaining I freeze in 2-4 portion oven safe containers for another day!

Ready to eat meals: once a week, I make a large amount of a certain dish and freeze the leftovers in oven safe glass containers (examples: baked pasta dish with ground meat and sauce, stir fry with rice. roasted meat with sauce and veggies…). Those meals go straight from the freezer, into the oven and into my husbands and my bellies!